I was invited to speak as one of the panelists in the recent social media summit that took place in Islamabad last week and I must say I enjoyed interacting with so many young students and professionals curious to learn about how they can use the power of the digital media for areas like political activism, journalism, freelancing, entrepreneurship and marketing. But there were some moments and impressions that were awkward to say the least.
The highlight of my panel discussion for me was when a Baloch student from the military-run National Defence University (NDU) asked why people get attacked social media and are labelled anti-Pakistan for activism like the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM). And I enjoyed answering it because I thought it was a very relevant topic that calls for detailed discussion. In my answer, I talked about social media trolls and how they hijack the conversation and urged everyone to be tolerant towards dissident views.
Just after I got down the stage I met with a few young students who commended me for my input in the panel discussion and when I sat down at a seat, another young student approached me from the row that was behind me and said he liked my session and that he had forgotten my name. I told him my name and just when I was doing that, a person sitting right next to this person in an over-enthusiastic voice said ‘oh you are Farhan Janjua’…and something like ‘so we meet finally.’
I turned a bit around and to my surprise it was none other than Farhan Virk. I did a bit of a face-palm thing braced for what was coming next. I responded by saying ‘how’s everything Farhan’. And just then he was telling the other fellow what I did in the past… how I had written sort of an exposé on him a couple of years ago detailing how this ‘wanna-be star’ Farhan Virk was actually a ‘fraud’. And to hear him repeat those word to the other fellow was nothing but sheer awkwardness, won’t you agree? I asked them if I was going to get beaten up to which they laughed and to my utter surprise, Virk said he was over it. We then ended up clicking a bizarre selfie together.
I did wonder though, what was a troll doing at the ‘social media summit’. I mean Farhan Virk is someone who for me at least personified the worst form of trolls imaginable.
And that my friends is just the beginning of a journey of awkwardness. The other fellow I’m talking about turned out to be who we know as another renowned troll Hanzala Tayyab. I tried to avoid them but could I really? It was the social media summit after all. So we continued talking for a few more minutes and Hanzala started boasting about his work. That’s when he talked about the ‘highlight’ of his ‘social media activism’ career; he told me he was the one who ‘leaked’ Mahira Khan’s picture smoking cigarette with Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor. In pure disbelief I asked him ‘you what?!’ And he was adamant in taking full credit for it.
This was the time when I decided I had to speak to them more for a potential article like this one. Not to mention many of the speakers who spoke after my panel discussion commended Farhan Virk for helping them with the social media. He was basically the darling of many prominent speakers including politicians Jan Achakzai and Ajmal Wazir Khan and Chinese Deputy High Commissioner Lijian Zhao. And the fact that he won the ‘social media icon’ award at the summit…how could I have avoided them now?
So I asked spoke to them a little more where they told me things you don’t wanna miss. Farhan Virk said he feels bad for how he attacked social media users with liberal and progressive views. He said through my article he would like to ‘once again’ apologise to everyone he has hurt.
“I was naïve and only 20-21 years old when I used to do those things and have matured since,” he said. “I don’t do fake accounts anymore”. He said he had apologised to Dr Abdul Qadir Khan – the scientist whom he impersonated to gain followers on the social media and that Dr Khan had forgiven him. He said he will reach out to everyone he had hurt and would apologise.
Upon my asking, he said he doesn’t believe any liberal person to be anti-Pakistan except for a certain politician from Balochistan. He said he now does legitimate ‘consultancy’ work and helps people get started on social media. The helping part was corroborated by the speakers I mentioned above in their speeches.
Hanzala said he didn’t have a personal agenda behind leaking Mahira Khan’s picture and claimed that it was just a ‘social experiment’ to prove the point how people pay more attention to the negative stuff. He said he would one day like to meet Mahira Khan and explain the whole thing to her. Upon asking, he said he wouldn’t apologise because he didn’t think he did anything wrong. “Mahira is a celebrity and by being so she automatically loses the right to privacy and her fans and followers can judge her.” He said.Hanzala also said he doesn’t mind Pakistani celebrities working in India but “they should keep their country’s ideology in mind when doing so.”
Things got utterly interesting when he told me he had gotten the taste of his own medicine when people started terming the person who leaked Mahira Khan’s photo an Indian agent because he said this was the time when PM Abbasi was also in the US to speak at the UN General Assembly. “I was shocked to see people were claiming I took money from India to divert attention from PM’s UN speech”, he said. “I swear I didn’t take any money from India”.
I started laughing uncontrollably and asked him how was it getting a taste of his own medicine where he was labelled Indian agent for once. To this he said it was a lie and a conspiracy. Oh dear irony!
Upon asking if he preferred the self-proclaimed label ‘social media activist’ or the one assigned by people online ‘troll’, he insisted he wasn’t a troll. He said liberals were against the two-nation theory and because he calls them out for that, he gets a lot of ‘hate’ from liberals. He went on to say that the liberals want to become like him and because they can’t, they end up hating him. The self-styled ‘activist’ said that he doesn’t block liberals but gets blocked by them.
“My original account had 80,000 plus followers but India got it shut down because we spoke out for Kashmir freedom and in favour of Burhan Wani,” he said, adding that Indian government sent a list to Twitter where his name was written as a cyber-terrorist.
It’s not up to me to decide if their apology should be accepted or not but if someone asked me, I wouldn’t mind engaging and holding discussion with ‘trolls’. They are after all, a part of the idealist youth – albeit misguided – that is the by-product of our education system.
The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at [email protected]. He tweets and instagrams @FarhanJanjua
Published in Daily Times, March 24th 2018.